That, I believe, is the main message of the gospel we have on Holy Thursday. (cfr. Jn 13,1-15) It’s about what happened during the Last Supper where aside from instituting the two sacraments of Holy Orders and the Holy Eucharist, Christ showed his apostles how love that is consummated by him in his total self-giving to us can be made perpetual.
The gospel started by stating that Christ, upon knowing that his hour of supreme sacrifice was coming, continued to love his people and “loved them to the end.” That’s when he instituted the two sacraments and showed his apostles how this consummate love of his can be made perpetual.
That’s when he proceeded to wash their feet that shocked them. Even Peter at first refused to be given such treatment. But Christ insisted, telling them, “If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet. I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.” (Jn 13,14-15)
There’s no other way to imitate that consummate love of Christ for us and to cooperate perpetually in the Christ’s continuing work of redemption, his supreme manifestation of his love for us. As Christ told his apostles, we too have to learn how to lower ourselves to be able to serve everyone, which is what loving in its true essence is all about.
We have to be wary of our tendency to get self-absorbed, the very opposite of what we are supposed to be—to think always of the others and to serve them unstintingly. This tendency is actually the stupidest thing we can get enmeshed in. But it’s kind of automatic in us to get self-absorbed. We have to be more aware of this disturbing reality and do something about it non-stop.
We have to do everything to acquire, develop and enrich this attitude of always wanting to serve and not to be served in ourselves and among ourselves, inspiring and inculcating it in others as much as we can, for it is what is truly proper of us all.
With God’s grace, we have to exert effort to overcome the understandable awkwardness and tension involved in blending the natural and the supernatural aspects of this affair, as well as the expected resistance we can give, due to the effects of our sins.
We can make use of our daily events to cultivate this attitude. For example, as soon as we wake up from sleep in the morning, perhaps the first thing we have to do is address ourselves to God and say “Serviam” (I will serve). It’s the most logical thing to do, given who God is and who we are in relation to him.
And “Serviam” is a beautiful aspiration that can immediately put us in the proper frame of mind for the day. It nullifies Satan’s “Non serviam” and our tendency to do our own will instead of God’s, which is what sin, in essence, is all about.
And as we go through our day, let’s see to it that everything we do is done as a service to God and to others. Let’s not do them merely out of self-interest or self-satisfaction. That kind of attitude is highly poisonous to us, ruinous to our duty to love. Sooner or later, we will find ourselves completely engulfed by self-centeredness.
This is how the consummate love of Christ for us is made perpetual.